194 



COSTA EICA. 



CRETE. 



necessary. It shows that the army for each of the 

 two years prior to the Spanish- American War cost 

 a little over $23,000,000, and but little more than 

 $46,000,000 for the two years covered by the Fifty- 

 fourth Congress, while for the army for each of 

 the two years since that war, 1901 and 1902, it 

 costs nearly $1 15,000,000, or $230,000,000 for the 

 two years, exclusive of deficiencies that have been 

 provided for in large sums out of appropriations 

 made for expenses of the Spanish War during the 

 Fifty-fifth Congress. The navy cost for the years 

 1897 and 1898. respectively, $30,562,000 and $33,- 

 000,000, or $63.562,000 for the two years, while 

 for the years 1901 and 1902 these appropriations 

 amount to $65,140,000 and $78,653,000, respect- 

 ively, or nearly $144.000,000 for the two years. 

 For* the payment of pensions the appropriations 

 show an average annual increase of nearly $4,000,- 

 000 for the current and next fiscal year over the 

 years 1897 and 1898. or nearly $8,000,000 for the 

 two years. In a word, this table shows that the 

 price' to the people of the policy of this adminis- 

 tration that has been thrust upon them by the 

 Republican party is in round numbers $400,000,000 

 within a period of two years, and the half that is 

 contemplated has not yet been put in operation. 

 The ship-subsidy measure, that has been de- 

 ferred but not abandoned, will cost $180,000,000 

 more, to say nothing of the lesser schemes." 



These different interpretations of a few simple 

 figures illustrate admirably the effect of partizan 

 opinion on the mental processes of really able 

 politicians, not meaning to be at all unfair. And 

 the perusal of a debate in Congress opens strange 

 vistas into human nature and historic possibilities. 



CONNECTICUT. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



COSTA RICA, a republic in Central America. 

 The Congress is a single chamber of 21 representa- 

 tives, elected for four years by electoral colleges, 

 the members of which are elected by the votes of 

 all self-supporting adult males. The President is 

 elected for four years, and may be chosen for suc- 

 cessive terms. The President for the term begin- 

 ning May 8, 1898, is Rafael Iglesias. The Vice- 

 Presidents are D. Iglesias Llorente, J. B. Quiros, 

 Federigo Tindoc, and Asencion Esquivel. The 

 Cabinet was composed as follows in the begin- 

 ning of 1901 : Secretary of State, having charge of 

 the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Worship, 

 Public Instruction, Public Charity, and Justice, 

 J. A. Facio ; Secretary of the Interior, Police, and 

 Public Works, Ricardo Pacheco; Secretary of 

 Finance, Juan B. Quiros; Secretary of War and 

 Marine, Jose Astua Aquilar. 



Area and Population. The area of the repub- 

 lic is about 23,000 square miles. The population 

 was estimated at 310.000 in 1899. San Jose", the 

 capital, has about 25,000 inhabitants. In 1892 

 there were 6,289 foreigners, and about 1,000 immi- 

 grants have been added for each year since. There 

 were 1,763 marriages, 13,012 births, and 9,925 

 deaths in 1897. 



Finances. The revenue in 1900 was 8,228,292 

 pesos, and expenditure 7,448,120 pesos. Of the 

 revenue 3,388,000 pesos came from customs and 

 2,400,000 pesos from excise. Of the expenditure 

 4,926,310 pesos were for the general administra- 

 tion and 979,652 pesos for interest on the debt. 



The internal debt in 1900 amounted to 6,916,072 

 colons. The colon is the new unit of value under 

 the act of Oct. 26, 1896, adopting the gold stand- 

 ard, while continuing the legal tender of the ex- 

 isting silver currency, and establishing the ratio 

 of 26 to 1. The new subsidiary silver, coined at 

 this ratio, will be legal tender up to 10 colons. 

 The value of the colon is 46.5 cents in United 

 States currency. Pieces of 2, 5, 10, and 20 colons 



are coined. The money in circulation at present 

 is principally paper, worth in exchange something 

 less than the colon on the gold value of the silver 

 peso. The new metallic currency was first put 

 into circulation on July 16, 1900. There have 

 been 5,000,000 colons coined, and the national sil- 

 ver currency amounts to about 1,000,000 colons. 

 The foreign debt, amounting to 2,085,000, under 

 an arrangement made with the creditors in March, 

 1897, will be reduced at the rate of 10,000 a year 

 from 1917. The interest, on the plea of the de- 

 preciation of silver, w r as lowered to 3 per cent, on 

 525,000, and 2| per cent, on 1,475,000. 



Commerce and Production. The total value 

 of imports in 1899 was $4,136,707 in gold, and of 

 exports $4,929,955. The export of coffee was $2,- 

 943,000; of bananas, $1,173,000; of woo'ds, $292,- 

 000; of precious metals, $267,000; of hides and 

 skins, $109,000; of gum, $106,000. The quantity 

 of coffee exported was 33,807,000 pounds; of 

 bananas, 2,962,770 bunches. Corn, rice, and po- 

 tatoes are raised for food. The cultivation of 

 cacao has been introduced. The working of gold 

 and silver mines has almost ceased. The pros- 

 perity of the country depends almost solely on the 

 coffee-crop, which is constantly increasing. The 

 banana industry is developing rapidly, and also 

 rubber-plantations, which require 7 or 8 years be- 

 fore any profits can be obtained. The Government 

 in April, 1901, increased by 50 per cent, the duties 

 on all importations, promising as an offset a re- 

 duction in the export duty on coffee, 1 cent a 

 pound, a serious burden on producers, which by 

 a later decree was abolished from Sept. 1, 1901. 

 Imports in 1900 were exceptionally heavy. 



Navigation. During 1898 the ports of Limon 

 and Punta Arenas were visited by 449 vessels, in- 

 cluding 26 steamers which call monthly at Limon, 

 10 of them at Punta Arenas. The merchant navy 

 consisted of 2 sailing vessels, of 551 tons, and 3 

 steamers, of 600 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 railroads completed at the end of 1899 had a 

 length of 162 miles. A railroad from Limon to 

 Alajuela, 137 miles, is being carried through to 

 the Pacific coast. In the middle of 1900 there re- 

 mained only 21 miles to be completed between San 

 Jose and the new port of Tiveves on the Pacific,. 



The number of internal letters, etc., that passed 

 through the post-office in 1898 was 1,552,287 ; the 

 number sent and received in the international serv- 

 ice, 848,015. 



The telegraphs in 1899 had 880 miles of wire. 

 The number of messages was 342,572. There were 

 200 miles of telephone lines. 



CRETE, an island in the Mediterranean, for- 

 merly a Turkish vilayet, since Dec. 21, 1898, an 

 autonomous province under the suzerainty of the 

 Porte, and under the administration of a high 

 commissioner of France, Great Britain, Italy, and 

 Russia. Georgios, Prince of Greece, born June 24, 

 1869, second son of the King of the Hellenes, was 

 nominated High Commissioner. The Constitution 

 was adopted on April 28, 1899. The legislative 

 body is the Boule, the members of which are 

 elected for two years in single districts in the pro- 

 portion of 1 to 5,000 inhabitants, excepting ten 

 members appointed by the Prince, making a total 

 of 73 members. The Boule meets biennially. The 

 members of the Prince's council, who are nomi- 

 nated by him and have the right to speak in the 

 Chamber, but not to vote, were in the beginning 

 of 1901 as follow: Finance, Constantinos M. Fou- 

 mis; Interior, Manoussos R. Koundouros; Public 

 Instruction and Worship, Nicolas G. Yamalakis; 

 Justice and Foreign Affairs, Eleutheros C. Ven- 

 ezelos. 



